This page is for organizing efforts surrounding remote development tools for PTP. Initially this will encompass efforts surrounding a remote development solution that utilizes CDT to provide a suite of remote development tools for C/C++ development. Given that the Photran (Fortran) project is built on top of CDT, we foresee that in the future the remote support we build for CDT could form the basis for remote support for Fortran as well.

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The current implementation of PTP (v1.0) provides basic support for the coding, compiling, launching and debugging of parallel jobs on a local parallel machine. However, a more typical situation involves one or more of these activities ocurring on a remote machine. In a practical configuration, the development of parallel programs often involves four environments:

; Build environment : the machine on which the program is to be build, which provides an environment with the same libraries and services available on the parallel machine

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; Parallel machine : the machine on which the program is executed and debugged

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It is possible that any combination of these machines may be physically remote, however it is normal for the user's desktop to be remote from the other machines. PTP must be able to support this range of configurations if it is to meet the needs of application developers.

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=== Project Configuration Alternatives ===

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There are three different possible ways that projects may be hosted in Eclipse:

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; Local Project : the project and all code of the parallel program is stored in the local file system of the user's desktop.

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; Remote Project : the project and all code is physically located on a remote machine (either a dedicated machine or one of the build machine or parallel machine).

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; Hybrid Project : the user desktop physically holds the project (in particular the project configuration information) but some or all of the code is physically located on a remote machine.

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The process of building, launching and debugging applications differs for each combinations of local and remote resources.

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==== Local Project ====

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In the case where the user's desktop is the central location where the whole project is physically located, the following capabilities are required to support remote build, launch and debug:

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'''Remote Build'''

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# The code and build information (e.g. Makefiles) must be first transferred to the build machine (possibly through project export).

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# The build command is invoked on the build machine.

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# The build log is transferred back to the local machine and used to update the local models and views (problem view, marker view etc).

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# The binary is transferred back to the local machine.

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'''Remote Launch & Debug '''

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# The control/monitoring/resource management system is invoked on the parallel machine.

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# The binary is transferred to the parallel machine.

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# Input data files are transferred to the parallel machine.

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# The launch command is invoked on the parallel machine.

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# The user desktop can then control the execution and debugging of the program

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# The stdio and stderr is trapped and send back to the user desktop.

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# Any output data files are transferred back to the user desktop.

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==== Remote Project ====

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In the case that a remote machine physically holds the project code, the following capabilities are required to support remote build, launch and debug:

# The code and build information (e.g. Makefiles) should be transferred to the build machine (possibly through project export), if the build machine is different from the machine that physically holds the project.

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# The build command is invoked on the build machine.

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# The build log is transferred back to the local machine and update local models and views (problem view, marker view etc).

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# The binary is transferred to the remote machine that holds the project.

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'''Remote Launch & Debug '''

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# The control/monitoring/resource management system is invoked on the parallel machine.

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# The binary is transferred to the parallel machine, if different from build machine.

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# Input data files are transferred to the parallel machine, if different from build machine.

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# The launch command is invoked on the parallel machine.

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# The user desktop can then control the execution and debugging of the program

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# The stdio and stderr is trapped and send back to the user desktop.

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# Any output data files are transferred back to the build machine, if necessary.

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==== Hybrid Project ====

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If some project files reside on the user's desktop and some on a remote fileserver, then both sets of files need to be reconciled prior to building and/or launching. Once the files have been reconcilde, the hybrid project can be treated as a remote project.

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=== Required Functionality ===

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Additional functionality is required to handle each of the project configuration cases:

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==== Local Project ====

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# File transfer between local machine and remote machine (replicte project to remote machine and update project with remote changes, using import/export or team synchronization)

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# Execute commands on remote machines

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# Access services on the remote machine (proxy via standard TCP/IP)

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==== Remote Project ====

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# Create project on remote file system

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# Initiate transfer of files between remote machines from the local machine

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# Execute commands on remote machines

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# Access services on the remote machine (proxy via standard TCP/IP)

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==== Hybrid Project ====

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# Transfer files between local and remote machine and initiate transfer between remote machines

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== Interested Parties ==

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# Otherwise, same as remote project

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== Related Work ==

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IBM

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* Greg Watson (PTP)

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* Chris Recoskie (CDT)

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* Jason Montojo (CDT)

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There is already some work in both the Eclipse platform and the DSDP project that is relevant to PTP. Almost all of this work is still at a relatively primitive stage however, and we summarize below both their current status and proposed future development targets.

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HP

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* Jacob Augustine

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=== Alternate File System ===

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Intel

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The ability to support alternative file systems within Eclipse, including non local file systems, has already been requested by a number of people from different areas. Some work has already been undertaken to provide this support.

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* Leo Treggiari (CDT)

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==== Status ====

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Cril Technology

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Starting from Eclipse 3.2 M5, alternative file system support has been partially added. There are two extension points involved:

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* Benoit Souyri

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* org.eclipse.core.filesystem (defined in org.eclipse.core.filesystem plugin) - core support for file system

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[[ECF | ECF Project]]

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* org.eclipse.ui.ide.filesystemSupport (defined in org.eclipes.ui.ide plugin) - ui support for file system

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* Scott Lewis

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Existing implementations provided by the Eclipse core for file system include: local, zip. UI supports for local and zip file systems are available.

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== Presentations ==

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The work on FTP file system seems to be going but the current code in the CVS is broken. There is currently no UI extension in the CVS.

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RSE has also provided an extension to the org.eclipse.core.filesystem extension point, which is a wrapper of its remote file subsystem. However, no extension to org.eclipse.ui.ide.filesystemSupport has been provided and thus it is not possible to use it directly.

Projects and Linked Resources can now be created with alternative file systems (tried with zip file system).

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* [http://wiki.eclipse.org/images/1/16/Remote_development.pdf Remote Development] Presented at the CDT Summit 2007 detailing the motivation behind the need for remote development tools and the status of current efforts.

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The 3.2 M5 release notes say that JDT has support non local file systems. However, to which extend such support is provided remains to be investigated.

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==== Future ====

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== Meeting Minutes ==

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I expect that the final release of Eclipse 3.2 will provide better support for alternative file systems in both the platform level and the JDT level. However, other projects might need some time to catch up with such a change. Fundamental efforts might even be necessary to provide full support for some of the projects, like CDT, Photran etc.

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=== Remote Service Explorer ===

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Monthly RDT calls are no longer being held. Instead, we are discussing RDT issues during the regular PTP monthly call. Archived meeting minutes from RDT calls can be found below.

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RSE provides UI and API support for browsing and manipulating files on remote systems, execute commands on remote systems, monitoring processes on remote systems and searching

The code currently in the CVS are solely those contributed by IBM. Many of the IDs are still prefixed by "com.ibm.rse". An experiment of the RSE shows that it basically works as it claimed. However, it doesnot meet our needs and possibly also does not meet the need of DSDP project:

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# The datastore feature is not interesting to us, as it requires to start on the target machine a specific datastore service.

RSE is now part of the Target Management subproject of DSDP. Because of the similar challenge for both the PTP and the DSDP, I'm expecting that RSE will be adapted and extended to better support the need of target management for both embedded devices and parallel machines. We will have to collaborate with the developers from DSDP to speed up this process.

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== Roadmap to PTP Remote Service Support ==

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== Early builds ==

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Early builds of RDT will be available on the [[PTP/builds/2.1 | PTP 2.1 builds page]]

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Based on the current status of Alternative File System and RSE, the following development tasks has been identified:

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== Planning ==

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=== Local Project ===

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Here are are some areas that are currently being worked on and/or investigated. We welcome contributions in all areas, so if you are interested in a particular area, do not hesitate to offer your input and assistance.

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# Extending the RSE to support remote file and remote shell on SSH.

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# Implement UI support for RSE file system. This can be done by extending org.eclipse.ui.filesystemSupport.

** PTP has a preliminary implementation for remote services abstraction. "Remote services" means essentially file operations, as well as launching and control of remote processes.

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*** There are several supported implementations of these services, the two most prominent of which are an implementation based on the [http://wiki.eclipse.org/TM_and_RSE_FAQ#What_is_RSE.3F Remote Systems Explorer (RSE)], and a lightweight SSH-only provider that is a part of PTP proper.

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** Greg Watson and Chris Recoskie have designed a [http://wiki.eclipse.org/PTP/designs/remote#Service_Model service model] for remote projects. This model has been implemented in PTP in the org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.services plugin., which allows:

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*** The user to configure which services in their system are mapped to which providers and locations.

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*** ISVs and tool implementers to define new services, and contribute providers to any defined services.

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RSE can be a potential platform to enable remote service support for PTP. However, huge efforts are still demanded.

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* EFS Support in CDT [[http://wiki.eclipse.org/PTP/designs/remote#Eclipse_File_System_Support Designs and notes]]

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Collaborative development is also necessary to get the CDT and Photran prepared for remote building and launching.

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** Chris Recoskie (IBM) has made some changes in CDT 5.0 to allow for one to successfully use CDT to create EFS hosted projects and edit the files. There are some other additional enabling API changes that were made to allow for CModel elements to be tied to EFS URIs.

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** Currently creating an EFS project does not magically allow all parts of CDT to work remotely. Most of CDT is still not EFS aware.

** Jason Montojo and Chris Recoskie have have implemented an initial set of C/C++ index based services using RSE's dstore protocol as the communication mechanism. An initial patch has been created and [https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=236944 submitted] to the PTP Bugzilla and is currently waiting to be committed. Currently implemented features include:

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*** A New Remote C/C++ Project wizard that allows you to create remote projects and configure your service model

Resource management is being designed and developed in PTP, how does remote services support fits into the design remains to be discssed.

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* Remote Standard Make (using CDT)

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** Chris Recoskie has started working on a Remote Make Builder and hopes to have a prototype working sometime in the summer of 2008. This builder will use PTP's Remote Services API in order to launch the builder (make) on the remote system.

Latest revision as of 11:41, 9 October 2008

Contents

Remote Development Tools

List of Authors:

Chris Recoskie (recoskie@ca.ibm.com)
Greg Watson (grw@us.ibm.com)

Background

This page is for organizing efforts surrounding remote development tools for PTP. Initially this will encompass efforts surrounding a remote development solution that utilizes CDT to provide a suite of remote development tools for C/C++ development. Given that the Photran (Fortran) project is built on top of CDT, we foresee that in the future the remote support we build for CDT could form the basis for remote support for Fortran as well.

Early builds

Planning

Here are are some areas that are currently being worked on and/or investigated. We welcome contributions in all areas, so if you are interested in a particular area, do not hesitate to offer your input and assistance.

Here is the current state of affairs, as of June, 2008.

General Remote Services

PTP has a preliminary implementation for remote services abstraction. "Remote services" means essentially file operations, as well as launching and control of remote processes.

There are several supported implementations of these services, the two most prominent of which are an implementation based on the Remote Systems Explorer (RSE), and a lightweight SSH-only provider that is a part of PTP proper.

Greg Watson and Chris Recoskie have designed a service model for remote projects. This model has been implemented in PTP in the org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.services plugin., which allows:

The user to configure which services in their system are mapped to which providers and locations.

ISVs and tool implementers to define new services, and contribute providers to any defined services.

Chris Recoskie (IBM) has made some changes in CDT 5.0 to allow for one to successfully use CDT to create EFS hosted projects and edit the files. There are some other additional enabling API changes that were made to allow for CModel elements to be tied to EFS URIs.

Currently creating an EFS project does not magically allow all parts of CDT to work remotely. Most of CDT is still not EFS aware.

Jason Montojo and Chris Recoskie have have implemented an initial set of C/C++ index based services using RSE's dstore protocol as the communication mechanism. An initial patch has been created and submitted to the PTP Bugzilla and is currently waiting to be committed. Currently implemented features include:

A New Remote C/C++ Project wizard that allows you to create remote projects and configure your service model

Chris Recoskie has started working on a Remote Make Builder and hopes to have a prototype working sometime in the summer of 2008. This builder will use PTP's Remote Services API in order to launch the builder (make) on the remote system.